Web Developer

Edit on 2011/07/24: The steps have been updated by Jason in the comments below.

This post describes how to disable auto-renew on your GoDaddy SSL certificates. But first, some background:

Domain name registrar Go Daddy has served me well as the registrar for my domain names and SSL certificates. They’re the leading domain registrar in the world, about four times the size of their closest competitor.

Unfortunately, I find little reason to recommend them nowadays. Their customer service leaves something to be desired, and I recently heard that they’re making .co the default setting for all new domain registrations. To me, this is slightly deceptive. GoDaddy is not informing people the TLD they registered under is controlled by the Republic of Columbia. I don’t have a problem with that in itself — I own a .me domain, controlled by a country that’s only 4 years old. It’s simply something I feel many people would object to, given an informed decision.

My latest grievance though, is that I realized they automatically turn on auto-renew for all SSL certificate registrations. This isn’t something that’s prompted or clearly told to the user. It’s just assumed. Luckily, I noticed today while managing my domains. After a bit of searching around, I figured out the convoluted process to disable it.

Comments

I agree Chris. I haven’t used Godaddy in a long time. I have been using 1and1.com for awhile. Ironically, now I am changing to hostgator soon. They are currently the most top rated host. I had no idea that they auto-renewed for Godaddy SSL certificates, I need to let some of my recent clients know that, I have referred a few to godaddy’s SSL system.

Thanks, Chris, this was helpful. The steps are a bit different as of 7/24/2011.

1. Login to GoDaddy
2. Click My Account on the top listing
3. Click “My Payment Information” on the left side nav bar
4. Click the small “View All Renewing Items” hyperlink on top of the grid of products that display on the next page
5. This brings up the page “Payment Profile” where all auto-renew items are listed
6. Click the “Auto” column header and look for any items turned “On”
7. Check the box next to any “On” items and click “Auto Renew ” at the top
8. On the right side of page, check “Disable Auto Renew” then “Save Changes”.

Before I found these instructions I went to what I thought wasthe obvious link “My Renewals” but this has NO SSL certificates listed. I assumed that they weren’t auto-renewing. Their 15 and 30 day reminder email messages make NO mention of auto-renew (unlike their domain renewals).

Suddenly we had our credit card hit. Not only do they auto-renew, they do it a month BEFORE the certificate is due to expire!!! I wouldn’t normally worry but this was a Wildcard certificate that cost $200. We had to drop it because we also found their claim of 99% compatibility to be untrue. I didn’t work on versions of Safari for the iPhone.

Definitely deceptive. I have a complaint in to them now. If they don’t resolve it I’ll have American Express reverse the charge